The Pipeline - Series 2: Elite Athletic Development

What’s up everyone,

I hope you’ve enjoyed your week and are getting ready to enjoy a great Friday night and weekend! We’ve got some exciting World Cup action this afternoon, so I’m sure a lot of you will be gearing up for that. But before that, let’s bring it back to The Pipeline, where we talk about future plans and strategies that AceBoy Sports Group has in the scopes.

Before we get stuck in, if you’re new here and haven’t already done so, please feel free to subscribe through the button below, to get a weekly edition of Learning the Venture direct to your inbox every Wednesday and Friday!

The current two pillars of AceBoy Sports Group are events management and full scope athlete representation. These provide the foundations to which ABSG has been built and will continue to be built on, with what we do in the future encompassing those efforts in some way. What I would like to launch in the near future, probably within the next year or two, is an player training program which combines skill building with athletic development, to assist athletes in becoming well rounded competitors in their respective sports.

Why is this needed in Bermuda?

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts (these can be found on our dashboard), Bermuda is not necessarily equipped to develop it’s athletes on home soil at an elite level. This is down to numerous factors, mainly resources available such as quality facilities and elite coaching/training methods. Most of the athletes who have some kind of noteworthy potential usually end up going abroad to continue their development. This is the norm in most cases, as you can’t beat the level of training a young footballer will receive at a professional Category 1 academy, and we wouldn’t be trying to replicate or outright replace this. This is purely down to providing another option for our young athletes that they can take advantage of while at home, to better prepare for them for opportunities abroad.

While Bermuda’s sporting bodies continuously make the efforts to invest in their existing coaches/trainers and facilities, they can only do so much. Additionally, there are already programs in Bermuda that are tailored to skill development within certain sports, but again, not every sport has this on the island. I’ve always believed in collaboration over competition when it comes to sports in Bermuda, as we are too small of a country to compete with each other when it comes to this stuff. An overarching goal of this program would be to help re-establish the benchmark for personal skill and athletic development amongst our athletes, thereby raising that standard and understanding for what it takes to succeed abroad.

How would this help ABSG?

The point of this program is to offer a service that focuses on elite athletic development, and one of the main goals of ABSG is to be seen as a market leader in the Bermuda sports industry. Adding a program that offers such a service would show that we are truly invested in creating a professional sporting ecosystem in Bermuda. This ties in with our goal of investing in our community, as this program will help develop athletes who will still compete and contribute to the local sports leagues in Bermuda, whether that be at the school, youth, or amateur levels.

Additionally, this could also assist us in our representation arm. By having what would essentially be an in-house service that focuses on skill and athletic development, we would instantly become more attractive to potential clients. We are seeing more and more agencies turning into full-scope athlete management services, and this would help us achieve that. This would also give us the opportunity to connect with future clients depending on the sport, as there are specific rules and regulations surrounding what exactly can be done by an agent with younger players. Therefore, we would be conducting a thorough investigative due diligence process on what exactly the program could look like, depending on each sport.

How would this help Bermuda?

While the sports industry is incredibly competitive, I am a firm believer in collaboration over competition, where it makes sense of course, and I think this is one of those instances. There are already numerous developmental training programs in Bermuda, with some sports having multiple operating at similar times of the year. Adding more knowledge and expertise into this sector of the Bermuda sports industry will only help raise the level these athletes, coaches, and trainers are operating at, in my opinion of course. Also, this would help to weed out the programs that I think don’t offer much to the athletes at all because they are either not caught up on current trends within their sport, are uneducated on their sport in general, or are just poor trainers/coaches. While that might seem harsh, I think it is a necessary step for our sports industry to take.

I would also be open to collaborating with existing programs on the island. I think the mindset with youth athletic development in Bermuda should be to provide them with as many opportunities for advancement as possible. We are too small of a country to compete with each other in that space, and there is no need to create that kind of animosity which I and many others have unfortunately experienced as young Bermudian athletes. There can still be healthy competition from a business perspective, which would encourage these coaches and trainers to invest in their craft, but the overall goal should be to provide proper training to the players.

What else could this program look like?

Just so you know, this whole plan isn’t final at all. There’s still a lot of intricacies to work out and it could be totally different when it is actually launched, with a soft target date for fall of 2023 to coincide with the beginning of the school term. I’m also exploring the possibility of launching as just a camp over the 2023 Easter break to gauge initial interest, which is what the most likely starting point will be. I will also like to explore what a fully educational program would look like for coaches, scouts and aspiring Bermudians would like to work in the sports industry. This could be a mutually beneficial tie in for the program, but would likely come at a later date.

Of all the sports that I think would benefit the most from this program, I believe basketball, golf, cricket, volleyball, and rugby have the most potential. I will steer clear of football as I am already an agent in the sport and there are plenty of quality development programs on the island who I have good relationships with already. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think that Bermuda has a lot of potential when it comes to our athletes, its just about putting them in the best environment to succeed, and I think we can start doing that here.

I hope you enjoyed this one, and if you had any thoughts to share you can respond to this post in the comments below! Until next week, wish our Reapers luck this Saturday as they take on the Young Goatz in the Bermuda Basketball League!

Check you later!

Jason